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Marijuana addiction is real, and rising

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Re: Marijuana addiction is real, and rising

#121

Post by sysalphUS »

beat wrote: post #65
ggggtez wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Within 24 hours without weed I become an intolerable asshole I'm going to go out on a limb here and suggest the underlying problem might not be the weed.

"24 hours without antipsychotics and I become schizophrenic". "I'm going to go out on a limb here and suggest the underlying problem might not be the antipsychotics". See the problem with your phrasing? Lots of people deal with anxiety, anger management, and other relatively mild psychological malfunctions by self-medicating (or prescription medicating) with THC. That's why it gets prescribed as medication for these…

“I have friends who are "marijuana addicts", who are pretty horrible to be around when they're not stoned, but fine when they are.” Change the word “stoned” to “have-had-coffee-at-least-in-the-morning” and you would be describing a large percentage of the population. It’s interesting which addictions are stigmatized and which ones are normalized.

Re: Marijuana addiction is real, and rising

#122

Post by bruthafez »

dev_420 wrote: post #6

Throwaway because obviously the stigma. But yes, it's very real. I am addicted to marijuana. I smoke nearly 3 grams a day; what has become a $1000+/month habit. I've always loved weed but the high salary has allowed me to lose control. I can't sleep or eat without it. Within 24 hours without weed I become an intolerable asshole who cannot eat or sleep. When I do sleep without it, it's full of nightmares and I wake up…

I smoked ten spliffs a day for more than five years. I switched to vaping (JUUL) and CBD oil tincture and I was miraculously relieved of my marijuana addiction.

Try CBD oil dude. You might find, like I did, that you smoke weed despite the THC, not because of it. You might be smoking purely for the CBD — why not isolate the variable and try CBD oil tincture under the tongue ?

FWIW I use an olive oil tincture that I purchase from the dispensary with a 20:1 CBD-to-THC ratio. I find that it gives me all the positive effects of weed (relaxation, anxiety/depression relief) and none of the negative ones (paranoia, weed hangover, irritability whenever I wasn't high). It's also cheaper by an unbelievable degree. The amount of THC in the tincture is not nearly enough to get me high, it's only there to help the CBD work its magic.

Try it dude. Ya might like it :)

Re: Marijuana addiction is real, and rising

#123

Post by pouta »

zaroth wrote: post #61

> “She told me to come back home. So I did,” Pohl said. “At the time, I wasn’t sure why she did that. I was still in that whole miserable phase, smoking at least an ounce of weed a week — two ounces on a good week.” Yikes. You can do just fine on one gram a month at today’s potency. Two ounces a week is 8 grams a day .

1 per month? As a daily smoker, how?

Re: Marijuana addiction is real, and rising

#124

Post by programmarchy »

hutzlibu wrote: post #84
hsienmaneja wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That you experience significant physical withdrawal symptoms from marijuana certainty calls into question the street wisdom that pot isn’t (physically) addicting.

It is not, "only" psychological addictive. But since our mind controls our body, the symptoms can be indeed severe, if the use, or abuse, like in this case, is extreme. Smoking 3g a day is the rough equivavlent of constantly drinking wodka instead of water.

Pot does produce physical changes in the brain, though. Heavy pot usage can dramatically increase the amount of anandamide receptors in the brain, which regulate hunger, motivation, pleasure and mood among other things. So quitting and having a neurotransmitter deficit until the brain returns to homeostasis causes hormonal and physical effects on the body... How is that “only” psychological?

Re: Marijuana addiction is real, and rising

#126

Post by naner »

zolthrowaway wrote: post #34
dev_420 wrote: post #6

Throwaway because obviously the stigma. But yes, it's very real. I am addicted to marijuana. I smoke nearly 3 grams a day; what has become a $1000+/month habit. I've always loved weed but the high salary has allowed me to lose control. I can't sleep or eat without it. Within 24 hours without weed I become an intolerable asshole who cannot eat or sleep. When I do sleep without it, it's full of nightmares and I wake up…

I was able to quit after like a 5+ year pretty excessive habit. There were three steps that really helped me. 1) I removed all accessories from my home. I sold/gave away all of my pipes, vapes, e-nails, etc. 2) I started taking nootropics. For me personally, l-theanine, caffeine, and a multivitamin did wonders. Even if it's placebo (which I don't think it is) it really helped mitigate the appetite and fogginess issue…

L-theanine and caffeine are considered nootroopics? That's just a cup of tea...

Re: Marijuana addiction is real, and rising

#127

Post by Archibald_Eric »

dev_420b wrote: post #10
dev_420 wrote: post #6

Throwaway because obviously the stigma. But yes, it's very real. I am addicted to marijuana. I smoke nearly 3 grams a day; what has become a $1000+/month habit. I've always loved weed but the high salary has allowed me to lose control. I can't sleep or eat without it. Within 24 hours without weed I become an intolerable asshole who cannot eat or sleep. When I do sleep without it, it's full of nightmares and I wake up…

I had basically the same experience, though I think I was closer to a gram or so a day, and I never had trouble eating. But yeah, to the people saying it’s not real, try a few days of insomnia. The feeling of being high is nice, but not terribly addictive or unquittable in itself. But going through the crappy parts of withdrawal, feeling irritable, etc., and on top of that, not being able to sleep? It’s torture. In t…

You need to use accounts with names that aren't so obviously alts in order to pull this garbage.

Re: Marijuana addiction is real, and rising

#128

Post by RickS »

whb07 wrote: post #120
bcheung wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People don't wake up with nightmares and covered in sweat if they don't have a cheeseburger in the last 24 hours.

I’d beg to differ. Go ask any XXXL wearing guy what happens if they clean up their diets.

Nah. Have you been one of these guys? I'm a XXL cleaning my act up and it feels great the whole time. All you realize is how fucked up you felt BEFORE. I've never known of anyone that went through that brand of withdrawl.

Re: Marijuana addiction is real, and rising

#129

Post by RickS »

zyxwvu wrote: post #68
Baeocystin wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is one important difference: withdrawal from something like alcohol can actually kill you. Withdrawal from marijuana makes you an irritable asshole for a week or two. The hardest part is understanding and coping with the issue that drives the user to use marijuana so heavily in the first place. If it can be understood what need the marijuana use is providing for, changing use patterns becomes possible.

Marijuana abused to self medicate is frankly cheaper than paying for mental health medication and therapy. It's also fast acting and has only minor negative side effects as opposed to taking several weeks to take effect and for any negative side effects (these can be rather bothersome or bad) to go away. Not to mention that's if that particular medication works for you. Going through several types, change in doses, e…

>Marijuana abused to self medicate is frankly cheaper than paying for mental health medication and therapy.

This implies that self medication has an outcome comparable to paying for mental health medication and therapy.

I would assert that it does not.

Re: Marijuana addiction is real, and rising

#130

Post by trentlott »

Baeocystin wrote: post #24
hsienmaneja wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That you experience significant physical withdrawal symptoms from marijuana certainty calls into question the street wisdom that pot isn’t (physically) addicting.

There is one important difference: withdrawal from something like alcohol can actually kill you. Withdrawal from marijuana makes you an irritable asshole for a week or two. The hardest part is understanding and coping with the issue that drives the user to use marijuana so heavily in the first place. If it can be understood what need the marijuana use is providing for, changing use patterns becomes possible.

That's why we differentiate between addiction and dependence.

Alcohol dependence prevents cold turkey for some people.

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